This dish is a little bit time consuming, but we love it, so we don’t mind. First, grate the potatoes (for 2 people we usually use about 8 or 9 medium size potatoes). We usually grate them pretty small, because then it is easier to fry them (they won’t fall apart). Once grated, drain off the excess liquid. Mix in 1 small onion (also grated small) and 1-2 lightly beaten eggs (we usually use 2 eggs for 2 people), some salt and a handful of GF oats. You can also add some grated carrots, if desired. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add about ¼ cup of the mix for each potato pancake. Fry them like you would regular pancakes, flipping them once after they start to turn golden brown. They are best when they are fresh out of the frying pan. We love to top them with smoked salmon and sour cream and/or apple sauce. Kids love them, too!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Here is another easy one! We have it listed as a car camping recipe, but some variation may be possible for short backpacking trips. This can be summed up in a photo, but let's look at it anyway just to be consistent ;)

Rice CakesSunflower Seed ButterFruit

I often eat this for breakfast at home, but it would be super easy to make at the campsite. This would be easy to take on a hike and eat for a snack. It could even substitute for a lunch on a rainy day when you don't want to stand outside cooking.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This recipe uses a Dutch Oven in the fire but could also be made as a “hobo pack” in the fire.

Ingredients

1 Lb of ground beef (could use turkey or just vegetables) Small onionSmall green pepper1 can of corn1 can of black beans2 cans of Rotel (canned tomatoes with chili peppers)Grated Cheese

Enchilada Sauce: Can take a packet of McCormick’s with you and make at the camp site with water and a can of tomato paste or make your own enchilada sauce.My Sauce: One 12 ounce can of tomato paste, one packet of McCormick chili mix, one can of milk (12 ounce can from tomato paste) and one can of Portobello Mushroom Soup by Imagine (12 ounce can from tomato paste) This makes a very thick enchilada sauce.

1 package of soft corn tortillas (make sure that they are GF) I use La Banderita

Assemble the Pie

1. Cook the ground beef, onions and green peppers together before you leave on your camping trip. Freeze in a zip lock back and the packet will thaw as you are driving to your camping location.2. Open the corn, black beans and rotel and mix together3. I make my enchilada sauce at home and keep in a cooler but you can quickly mix-up the McCormick sauce at the camp site4. Put a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the Dutch oven to keep the first layer of corn tortillas from sticking. (same for hobo packet)5. Layer a corn tortilla, veggie mix and meat mix and cheese as if you are making lasagna. End the “stack” with a tortilla, sauce and then cheese6. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and place in hot coals with hot coals on top of oven. (or close up your hobo packet by wrapping it in an extra layer of heavy-duty foil) 7. Since the meat is already cooked, you are really just heating the pie up at the camp site. I have even eaten this cold the next day. Also the un-used corn tortillas make a great snack with a can of re-fried beans, salsa and cheese the next day—or for breakfast as egg wraps.

Note: The pie will heat up very fast as a hobo packet. I suggest placing the packets on a grate over the fire and not directly in the fire.

* Envirokids makes a good Rice Bar** Look for recipe in this blog*** We make peanut butter cookies. We also like Pamela's Chocolate Chip. Trader Joe's has GF Ginger Snaps**** We buy GF cake mix and make individual cupcakes***** We buy ours at Trader Joe's, but we've seen them elsewhere

Preparation:Cook the pasta in lightly salted water (until al dente) and drain.In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and salt. Add the pasta and toss to coat. Cover, and chill for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. In the meantime, marinate the chicken in Italian dressing and then bake it at 350 degrees. When cooled, slice it up and later add it to the salad. You could also grill the chicken.Boil eggs in a separate sauce pan and allow them to cool. Then peel and quarter.Add the onion, cucumber, feta cheese, tomatoes and fresh spinach to the pasta. Arrange the quartered eggs around the salad to serve or leave them whole if you want to take the salad with you.

Note - The pasta is bionaturae Organic Gluten Free fusilli made with rice, potato and soy. We bought it at Whole Foods recently and tried it for the first time - we like it.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

If anyone makes this recipe, feel free to email me the photo so I can post it here!

"Ok...so you take a large piece of aluminum foil and spread it out on a table.First put a large slice of onion down.A tab of butter or some oil.Then a hamburger patty seasoned with favorite seasoningsAdd thin sliced potatoes, mushrooms, peppers, or what ever you like for vegetables.Top with more seasonings and a tab of butter or some oil.Seal the foil around the pile of food and place over coals on rack or rock near coals or on grill. Cook for approx 20-30 min...until all veggies are tender and meat is cooked.My husband and I have cooked this on our BBQ for a quick dinner too!Have a great day!!~Autumn"

GF note - Please make sure that the hamburger is gluten-freeVariations? Anyone have any ideas?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

We didn’t expect to enjoy this dish as much as we did! I know, I know, the photos are at a dining room table with dishes that are not for camping ;-) But we wanted to share this dish with you and it would be pretty easy to make while camping.

First, we bought a package of grits at Trader Joe’s. We sliced it to the desired thickness and began to sauté it in a pan. We sliced up a couple of different cheeses and set them aside, then added some bacon to the same big pan. While camping this might best be done on a large griddle. If you like, move the grits through a little bit of bacon juice, just for the flavor and to keep them oiled. While that’s happening, you can heat up some soup, we use soup in the cartons from Trader Joe’s.

When the grits are hot and the bacon is almost done, put the pieces of cheese on top of the grits and heat for a couple more minutes until the cheese is hot and almost ready to melt (We used brie and a cheddar mix). Serve it up!My wife had never had grits before and was resistant to trying them. She was pleasantly surprised, and even asked for a few more bites off my plate.

Variation? It might work with polenta instead of grits. Maybe serve it with a couple of fried eggs. Or some salsa. I bet there are a LOT of variations! Any other suggestions?

1. Heat the olive oil up in a small sauce pan. Add the garlic and ginger and stir until very fragrant (about a minute).2. Add the remaining marinade ingredients by whisking.3. Simmer the marinade over low heat for 8 minutes.4. Cool marinade to room temperature.5. Pour marinade over pork loin in a large (enough) Ziploc bag.6. Refrigerate until ready to grill.

Sweet Potatoes:1. Prepare sweet potatoes by peeling and chopping into large chunks.2. Drizzle 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil over sweet potatoes (depending on number of potatoes).3. Sprinkle 3/4 Tablespoon of sea salt onto potatoes.(NOTE: I also added 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar at this point - as we like our potatoes sweet.)

DIRECTIONS FOR GRILLING:1. Heat one side of the gas grill to medium-high and the other to low (as low as it goes).2. Grill the pork loin on the medium-high heat side for 4-5 minutes on each side (flipping once).3. Move the pork to the low-heat side.4. In a grill pan, put the sweet potatoes over the medium-high heat side. Turning and stirring throughout the remaining of the cooking time.5. Cook for 12 minutes (turning potatoes throughout) then flip the pork loins. Cook an additional 12 minutes or until an internal temperature of 147F (pork) and the potatoes are tender. (Total potato cooking time: 25 minutes)6. Remove pork and potatoes from heat. Tent the pork under aluminum foil and allow to rest for 12-15 minutes.7. Put the sweet potatoes into a serving bowl. Since we like sweeter potatoes, I drizzled them with 2 Tablespoons of butter, 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup and 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar. Add all seasonings to taste.

Once the resting time is over, slice the pork loin thinly and serve with the grilled sweet potatoes."

Adaptation for camping - Prepare the marinade at home and put it together with the loin in a bag, then freeze the bag.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Important note – Always make sure to check the ingredients to ensure that they are gluten-free.The following recipe is from Elana’s Pantry. Her website looks really great! Check it out at http://www.elanaspantry.com/---------------------------------------------------------------“To be honest, I am not a natural when it comes to the open flame; in general, my husband does the grilling in our family (so manly!) and slathers up the fixins’ before he throws them on the grill. In order to get my BBQ bearings I went to bbqrecipesecrets.com. On that site, I learned that there are 3 types of barbecue sauce –tomato, mustard or vinegar. Unfortunately, for me, and perhaps some of you, each of the recipes contains a significant amount of sugar, so I used their Basic Tomato BBQ sauce recipe as a map, adding and subtracting from it to create the new one below. I hope you like it Katie!

Warm oil in a saucepan over medium low heatAdd garlic and shallot; cook until softAdd tomato paste, orange juice, vinegar, mustard, paprika, salt and pepperSimmer over low heat 15 to 20 minutes, stirring oftenBaste over fish or chickenRefrigerate and allow to marinate for 1-3 hoursGrill and serve Serves 6 -makes enough sauce for one whole chicken or 4 breasts”You may notice that grilling instructions are conspicuously absent –you do not want to get them from me. While my husband is not a chef, he is the grill master in the family.”http://www.elanaspantry.com/condiments/bbq-sauce/-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adaptation for camping – Prepare the marinade at home, put the chicken in a freezer bag and smother it in the sauce. Freeze it at least a day before your departure and take it out when you pack the cooler. This will do double duty to prolong the life of the chicken and also act to keep other items in the cooler a little bit colder.

2. In a large saucepan, cook pasta in boiling water according to package instructions, until just tender. Rinse well under cold running water and drain well.

3. Return the pasta to the saucepan. Stir in milk, Worchestershire sauce and cheese mixture. Simmer, Stirring gently, over low heat until mixture boils and thickens.

This recipe is from - The Best Gluten-Free Family Cookbook – by Donna Washburn & Heather Butt

To adapt this recipe for camping -

At home - Combine the dry ingredients in a small sealable container - sorghum flour, dry mustard, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper.For cheese, we take a couple of sealed bags of shredded cheese with us.If space is limited, or if it is inconvenient, you might leave the Worchestershire sauce at home.Additional note, we used a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk, just because it was convenient, and we think it turned out fine.

We really enjoy this one! Just like any pasta dish, you could add some vegetable, especially tomatoes to the Mac & Cheese.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Here is another easy one! Bring the milk product or milk substitute of your choice. When camping, we usually bring Soymilk or Almond Milk. It can be purchased in quart size containers which do not need to be refrigerated until opened. This saves room in the coolers, and since the containers are rectangular they store more easily inside the cooler and out.

It's not fair to call this a recipe, but I couldn't resist sharing it with you.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Recipe is from cooks.com We use mostly chocolate krispies, but we mix in some plain ones, maybe one or two cups, just for the look and to make the chocolate a little more mild. We think it tastes better ;-)

The boxes of cereal in the photo are the ones that we used for the treats in the first photo. The last I checked, Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies are not gluten-free. Cocoa Pebbles might be gluten-free, but you should check the ingredients before deciding to use them.